Pavel Černoch

Don Carlos is Giuseppe Verdi's magnificent opera that tells a story of love, politics and personal conflicts against the backdrop of the 16th century Spanish royal court. The protagonist, Prince Don Carlos, loves Elizabeth of Valois, but for political reasons she is married to his father, King Philip II. The opera reveals the complex relationships between the characters and the internal struggles between duty and emotion, while reflecting the tension between secular and ecclesiastical power. Don Carlos is a powerful dramatic work that offers emotional music, a tragic story and deep psychological portraits of the characters.

At the law firm: the end of a long inheritance procedure. It seems that for Albert Gregor (a descendant of Ferdinand Gregor) the case is lost. His lawyer, Dr. Kolenaty, arrives with the mysterious singer Emilia Marty... At the center of the Makropulos Affair is the recipe for a life-extending elixir invented by the physician Hieronymus Makropulos for Emperor Rudolf II. It was tested on the doctor's beautiful daughter, who has been alive for 337 years and has had countless affairs over the generations. Eventually, however, the seemingly young woman must realize that an endless life on this side of the world brings only loneliness...

To everyone's astonishment, she knows the background to the dispute over the inheritance - and refers to the hitherto unknown Baron's will, which is then found and brought to court by Dr Kolenatý, accompanied by his opponent Jaroslav Prus. However, Emilia Martyová is primarily interested in the Greek document attached to the will. Albert Gregor falls in love with Emilia Marty.

Verdi's Requiem was written to honour the memory of the novelist Alessandro Manzoni and the composer also included the previously composed part of Libera me from the intended Mass for Rossini. In it, the soprano sings softly, pleadingly: "Deliver me, Lord..." Little did Verdi know that, like Rossini and Manzoni, he too would achieve immortality through his work. Among those immortal in this way are also the architects Antonín Balšánek and Osvald Polívka, who left us the beautiful Smetana Hall in Prague. It is perfect for great vocal-instrumental opuses. Let us pay tribute to all these greats together with conductor Tomáš Brauner and the stellar cast of singers led by Ester Pavlů and Pavel Černoch.